Jordan queen hits back at cartoon of drowned Syria boy

Jordan's Queen Rania has hit back at a cartoon in French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo depicting drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi as a grown-up refugee committing sexual offences in Germany.

The cartoon shows a pervert chasing a woman, with the caption asking: "What would have become of small Aylan if he grew up?"

"Someone who gropes asses in Germany," it added, referring to the multiple acts of sexual assault blamed on migrants on New Year's Eve.
In response Queen Rania posted a cartoon on Facebook and Twitter by Jordan's Osama Hajjaj depicting the little boy lying face down on the beach alongside an older child with a backpack and finally a doctor.

The queen added the caption: "Aylan could've been a doctor, a teacher, a loving parent."

"Queen Rania gives an elegant and effective rebuttal that refutes the shameful Charlie Hebdo cartoon. She is such a class act!" Facebook user Jane Shartzer commented on the queen's page.

In September, the queen in a speech in Berlin urged Europeans not to "bolt the door for fear of the unknown" in response to the growing flood into the continent of refugees from Syria's brutal conflict.

The Charlie Hebdo drawing has triggered sharp criticism on social networks while Aylan's relatives in Canada expressed "disgust".

The magazine, contacted Thursday by AFP, declined to comment.

On January 7, 2015, jihadist gunmen killed 12 people in an assault on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, which had been a target since publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2006.